Validity of self-reported intensity of exposure to second-hand smoke at home against environmental and personal markers

José M Martínez-Sánchez; Adrián González-Marrón; Juan Carlos Martín-Sánchez; Xisca Sureda; Marcela Fu; Raúl Pérez-Ortuño; Cristina Lidón-Moyano; Iñaki Galán; José Antonio Pascual; Esteve Fernández

doi:10.1016/j.gaceta.2017.08.002

Validity of self-reported intensity of exposure to second-hand smoke at home against environmental and personal markers

Gac Sanit. 2018 Jul-Aug;32(4):393-395. doi: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2017.08.002. Epub 2017 Nov 2.

Affiliations

¹ Group of Evaluation of Health Determinants and Health Policies, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain; Tobacco Control Unit, Cancer Prevention and Control Programme, Catalan Institute of Oncology-ICO, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Cancer Control and Prevention Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: jmmartinez@uic.es.
² Group of Evaluation of Health Determinants and Health Policies, Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, Sant Cugat del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain.
³ Social and Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Tobacco Control Unit, Cancer Prevention and Control Programme, Catalan Institute of Oncology-ICO, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Cancer Control and Prevention Group, Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute-IDIBELL, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain; Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Medicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
⁵ Group of Integrative Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience, Neurosciences Programme, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain.
⁶ National Centre for Epidemiology, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Madrid, Spain; Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
⁷ Group of Integrative Pharmacology and Systems Neuroscience, Neurosciences Programme, Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), Barcelona, Spain; Department of Experimental and Health Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.

PMID: 29102505
DOI: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2017.08.002

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the validity of two questions about the perception of intensity of exposure to secondhand smoke (SHS) at home using as a reference environmental markers (airborne nicotine and benzene) and biomarkers of exposure (cotinine in saliva and urine). This was a cross-sectional study in a convenience sample of 49 non-smoking volunteers. We found a high correlation between self-reported SHS exposure and airborne nicotine (r_sp=0.806, p<0.05), salivary cotinine (r_sp=0.752, p<0.05), and urinary cotinine (r_sp=0.626, p<0.05). We did not find differences between the score question and the conventional ones (p >0.05). In conclusion, the significant correlation of the two questions proposed with environmental markers and personal markers indicates their potential validity to assess exposure to SHS at home.

Keywords: Cotinina; Cotinine; Hogares; Home environment; Humo de tabaco ambiental; Marcadores personales; Nicotina; Nicotine; Personal markers; Second hand smoke; Validación; Validity.